The invention relates to vehicle sleeper bunks, and more particularly to a combined restraint and curtain system for vehicle sleeper bunks.
Previously, sleeper bunks for truck cabs, positioned behind the driver compartment, have had a curtain for privacy and light exclusion and a separate restraint system adjacent to the curtain for preventing the occupant's being thrown forward out of the sleeping compartment when strong inertial forces occur, as in an accident. The curtain itself was usually snapped into place around the forward periphery of the sleeper bunk, and this was a slow and awkward process. Then the restraint was installed by threading straps through hardware on the cab structure, also slow and very awkward. The curtain and restraint of these prior systems did not work well together, and the occupant had a difficult time entering and exiting the sleeping area when both the curtain and the restraint were installed. Also, when not in use, the restraint device did not store well in these prior systems. As a result of much of this, the occupant of the sleeper bunk seldom used the restraint device, and the purpose of the restraint was defeated.
None of the prior art of which the applicant is aware shows a bunk curtain and restraint combination having the advantageous features of the present invention described below. Lyter U.S. Pat. No. 4,043,582 shows a restraining net but without any strap in conjunction with the net. Applas U.S. Pat. No. 1,110,857 disclosed a vehicle curtain in sections, with the sections storable by rolling them up, as was typical of some of the prior art. Pfeiffer U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,683 shows zippers adjoining adjacent curtain sections. Lazarek U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,458 shows the use of hook and looped fabric type fasteners, known under the trademark Velcro, in a vehicle curtain.
No suggestion of the combined sleeper bunk curtain and restraint system of the invention has been found in the prior art.